Texas Trump Judge Bans Abortion Pill Nationwide For Entirely Nonsensical Reasons

And another judge barred the FDA from banning them. It's Schrodinger's abortion pill!

As entirely expected, United States District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued a preliminary injunction barring the distribution of Mifepristone, on the grounds that, two decades ago, the FDA failed to properly vet the drug before allowing it onto the market. This is of course ridiculous, because the drug had already been on the market in France and other countries for years at that point, making it entirely reasonable to fast-track it, as well as because twenty years of use, with the drug proving to be safer than both Tylenol and Viagra, clearly shows that this was an entirely reasonable decision.

Of course, prior to being appointed to the lifetime position by Trump, Kacsmaryk had been an anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ lawyer, so he was already amenable to very stupid arguments.

The lawsuit was brought not by people who have actually been "affected" by the drug in any particular way, but rather a coalition of wacky anti-abortion groups, including some doctors and dentists. Normally this would mean they have no standing to sue, but Kacsmaryk found that they did. The rationale for this was that the groups represented the "interests" of doctors who claimed that the pill being legal would "overwhelm" the medical system.

Here, the associations’ members have standing because they allege adverse events from chemical abortion drugs can overwhelm the medical system and place “enormous pressure and stress” on doctors during emergencies and complications. These emergencies “consume crucial limited resources, including blood for transfusions, physician time and attention, space in hospital and medical centers, and other equipment and medicines.”

Surely, if these complications were going to "overwhelm the medical system" they would have done so in the last 20 years in which it has been legal.

Another reason Kacsmaryk found they had standing was because the people who have actually used the pill might be too ashamed to come forward, because of how traumatized they are from having had an abortion.

Finally, women who have already obtained an abortion may be more hindered than women who challenge restrictions on abortion. Women who have aborted a child — especially through chemical abortion drugs that necessitate the woman seeing her aborted child once it passes — often experience shame, regret, anxiety, depression, drug abuse, and suicidal thoughts because of the abortion.

One of the sources he used to back this up was a study titled Deaths Associated with Pregnancy Outcome: A Record Linkage Study of Low Income Women by one David C. Reardon ... who is an electrical engineer and anti-abortion activist. The other was written by Priscilla K. Coleman, who is at least has a background in actual psychology but whose work has been repeatedly criticized for its inaccuracies and poor methodology by the American Psychological Association and researchers who found they were never able to replicate her results. In other words, she is known to be full of shit.

In issuing his decision, Kacsmaryk wrote that he just had to demand that the drug be taken off the market because the "plaintiffs are likely to suffer irreparable harm if the Motion is not granted," because "[a]t least two women died from chemical abortion drugs just last year."

Adding those two to the list would make for a grand total of 26 women who have died from complications related to abortion medication, which makes it safer than probably any random and entirely legal and FDA-approved thing one can name. It is fewer than the number of people who die from being struck by lightning (28) every year in the United States. 500 people die a year from Tylenol overdoses. Erection drugs have been linked to hundreds of deaths.

And about a dozen children die each year from Christian faith healing.

Oh! And let's not forget the many, many people who die each year from treatable conditions because they can't afford health care in the United States.

So that's clearly some bullshit.

Kacsmaryk's ruling isn't meant to go into effect for seven days and may not go into effect at all, as U.S. District Judge Thomas O. Rice in Washington State has issued his own ruling which will bar the FDA from "altering the status quo and rights as it relates to the availability of Mifepristone." The ruling was issued in response to a lawsuit filed by the Democratic attorneys general of 17 states and the District of Columbia. It doesn't actually seem like anyone is particularly clear on what any of this means for any of us. Is it legal? Is it illegal? Is it Schrodinger's abortion pill? I couldn't tell you right now.

This probably means that the Supreme Court will have to take up the issue a lot sooner than expected, which, unfortunately, may be pretty bad for us, given that the makeup hasn't much changed since they overturned Roe .

But don't go canceling your abortion appointments just yet.

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